Is it really only Tuesday?

You know how weeks like to play with your mind?  Wel this is one of those weeks for me.  I could just swear it was Thursday, but nooooooo.   Not only is it not Thursday, but it's not even Wednesday yet.  [You should read that with a little whiney voice to simulate thevoice in my head as I type this.  I swear that if keyboards had sounds, mine today would default to .]

When not whining about how slow the week is going (please note:  we NEVER have this problem with weekends!--- must be some special physics corollary to the laws of time and space that speeds up time between Friday night and Monday morning, then slows it down Monday morning through Friday afternoon), I have made some small bits of progress.

My Prairie Moon start (aka Did-I-Really-Need-Another-WIP-in-2012 #1) has amde some small advance:

I would also like to take this opportunity to tell designers everywhere that if you feel somehow compelled to chart your latest and greatest in a thread not readily available in every corner LNS, then the Nice Thing is to give DMC/Anchor equivalents (and even nicer-- Anchor as well)/  At the very least, check to see if the Web has available some COMPLETE transfer charts for your stitchers to use.  This Prairie Moon piece is charted entirely in NPI silks.  I can find no online conversion that includes most (let alone all) of the NPI numbers.  It took the better part of an entire day to try and wrestle out a conversion working from the picture alone.  Please, designers, don't frustrate your stitchers like this.

I've also been doing a little masonry --

That there tower of gold-ish is a chimney on my Chessie and Me piece.--- oh how I love Belle Soies!  It's like stitching with air.

And, check this, my Ladies Day by Tish as been progressing too --

That overdyed grey is by Thread Gatherer in their Silk n Colors line.  The little "seam" in the middle of each diamond is going to get a smal ine of Kreinik #8 in gunmetal grey.

I keep thinking I've made it so far, but really after this lady is done, I have "Lady #4" (who is the biggest of the group), and the ground and sky behind them.  If I focus, maybe they'll be done by June. .... I'm not saying June of what year though!

Now, a cautionary tale --- look out for those parking berms --

As one of the Country Club ladies left stitching the other night the parking space stop tried to go home with her.  Literally, the rebar on one end of the berm got hooked under her bumper and brought the whole thing with her as she pulled out.  All is fine -- car, person...... don't know how the parking berm is feeling, but I don't suppose I care all that much.  Sorry parking structures everywhere.

Been bad. Been busy. Been grumpy. Been accomplishful... no, not so much.

Hello world.  I was going to be so much better in 2012.  I was going to:
1.  post at least once a week (and mostly twice)
2.  adventurously (and against my better judgement) sally forth into the Crazy January Challenge
3.  not care so much about stupidity in global corporations (well, one particular global corp)
4.  read  a lot
5.  stitch a lot
6.  finish a bunch of WIPs
7.  become a better person
8.  cure the common cold
9.  stop buying so much stash

Progress thus far:
#4 -- going pretty well
#1-3 and 5-9 -- not so good

So now that we've covered my failures in brief.   Maybe I ought to share some of my more picturesque downfalls.  Let's talk WIPs, shall we?    It's not like I lacked for them coming into 2012, afterall I had plenty going in to 2011 (and 2010, and 2009, and 2008, etc.), but apparently I thought I needed more therefore:

Lsat week I started:

and after spending a traditional evening switching colors I have made it this far:

Yes, I did pull all belle Soies for this.   I can't help it;  they're yummy!


I've been maing some progress on my Ladies Day --

That purple dress is alternating rows of Belle Soie "Princess" and DMC and I love it almost as much as I love that pot next to her.

Just this week I made startling progress on my VBeatrix Potter.  She's all the way to here now --

See that bottom, central brown motif?

Yup, that one.  Since before Christmas I have finished the left-hand side of that.  No.  Honest.  Ok, you can stop laughing now.  Yeah, yeah, with progress like that I'll never set the stitching world on fire.  I know.  I know.  Two-three more years and I'll be done!

But hey, I've been sooooo busy on other things (not)...

This LHN ornie was goint great guns until about an hour into my flight to Washington, DC on December 17th and hasn't seen the light of day since.

This Prairie Schooler ornie got started before Christmas and also hasn't see the light of day since:

But, since I'm never one to be disuaded by undone projects, I simply had to start some more new things like this needlepoint ornie:

And this stocking which is for the lettest nephew -- it will primarily be done by his grandmother (my sister).  I'm just getting it started and then I'll hop i nto finish the background:

My sister and I have this lovely arrangement.  You know how I feel about "fiddly bits" (you know those patterns that require constant color changes and such?   Well she like that.  She says it keeps her from being bored.  Well, she's putting in the penguins and I'll do the background -- works out just fine for me.

So let's see, if I start the Crazy January Challenge late I can already claim new starts of: 
1.  penguin stocking
2.  cocoa needlepoint
3.  Virtue's Ways
and I could swear there were a couple more.  Then again, I could just be thinking of all the stash I've been hauling in.  That will ahve to wait for another day.... sorry.

Happy stitching to all, and may your 2012 resolutions be going better than mine are!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy birthday, Chief Head Honcho! 

Happy New Year!

May 2012 be good to all of us. Here's to peace, health, happiness, and joy..... and post more. I promise!! {hand on the "heart" of my keyboard}

Just call me "Lucky"

Happy mail is here again
The stash is all around again
So let's stich a piece of joy again
Happy mail is here again!!!!!!!!!

I receive this pack of joy from our friend Rahenna who I joined an ornament exchange with.
Just take a look at those goodies! -- Please note the baggie of really pretty beads -- Mr. Postman managed to change that from a lovely scissor fob into a loose collection of beads -- never fear! I can string beads!!!! But I don't know what to do first -- turn that Santa into an ornie or start that partridge. Oh wait. I know what to do first -- oggle my ornie!

You're turning green aren't you. lol I know I would if I weren't me.

And, gentle reader, not only did the post bring that happy package, but it also brought the following goodies from BluStitcher--

I've already picked out some "essential" pieces --




I ask you, dear friends, was that fair of Blu? Did I really need to be lead that far down the path of even more WIPs?

I wish you all as happy a mail delivery as I have had --- and to my American friends, a very, very peaceful and pleasant Thanksgiving!

If, perchance, anyone is going to be at LosCon this weekend, if you see someone frantically stitching away in the panels, drop by and say "hi" -- that'll be me!

Successful hermiting!

Apparently hermiting agrees with my character. So much and yet so little happened this weekend -- and both aspects make me happy.

I was a slug -- a true slug and a happy one at that. Until dinner Sunday nite I did not exit Chez Hovel. And **all** I did was stitch and nap (and take breaks for hummus and feta. For all fine planning I did on Friday, barely one of them saw the light of day. Instead ......

....I stitched this:


......I stitched and finished this:


.....And I finished these (Sure, they've been waiting for a year... but what's a year in the larger world of my slow stitching?):



.....And I made progress on my Oldest UFO -- the only of my Friday Plans to make the cut --

Oh the joy of working with Silk and Colors! Such fun. I have to admit that it's rather slow going since age and a lot of scrubbing during frogging has made it rather essential to stitch based on the picture included in the kit. I consider myself lucky that it is a fairly clear picture so I can follow the more detailed sections without the help of canvas painting.

I have to admit that while I had great plans to hermit this weekend, I had also thought that I'd do some cleaning and sorting (of stash and the occaisional other pedestrian possession)-- I was going to get all my various threads sorted and put away. I was going to get my recent book purchases and gifts input into the computer and tucked away on shelves. I was going to sort out and tidy up all my misc UFOs and WIPs. I was going to sort and toss a bunch of drivel. I was going to make lemon soup. Did I ... no. I ran out of snack bags so the thread sorting stalled, I lacked eggs for the soup, and you can choose between entropy and laziness for excuses for the other non-activities.

How was your weekend? Any hermiting activities to report?

Are you ready to hermit?

This weekend is International Hermit and Stitch Weekend

Will you be joining me? I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it! I dont have to work this weekend. So it'll be me stalwartly parked at Chez Hovel, listening to books or TV and stitching my little fingers off. Oh, ok. I suppose there will need to be cleaning and organizing too since it looks like my stash pile is close to reaching the critical mass required for it to apply for protected status from the UN.

Of course the big question now has to be: What will I hermit upon? Oh the choices!!!
Beatrix got out for a bit of an airing sometime late last week. Possibly she'll get out this weekend.


Or maybe it's time to start over on my Oldest UFO -- now that I have my Silk and Ivories to work with


Or perchance I'll uncover my Specialty Stitchers' Tree of Stitches--

I could probably get that done this weekend if I eschewed all else.

I've had a couple of these canvases underway and finishing more of them would be quick and staisfying--


But then again, just a couple weeks ago I put this on stretchers...


Ooo, Rose City Stitchers hasn't been out for a while--


And somehow I missed working on America for Veterans Day (what was I thinking?)--


Chances are though I'll haul out ornaments. I want to get a few in the mail just after Thanksgiving so that means me and the stuffing need to spending some quality time together.

So, will you hermit with me? Please? You know we'll have fun together.

Happy Stithcing!

***********
Barbara and Theoria -- regarding the Warrior Sheep -- I am fairly certian that most 10-ish year olds will be humored by their adventures. It's entertaining, but neither as fast as it could be or prettily-written enough to to be worthy of being slow. It's about this flock of "heirloom" sheep (each variously charactrerized -- one fancies itself a rapper, and one is concerned about her looks and fashion) who get hit by a falling cell phone which they think is a sacred item they need to take to the leader of sheepdom lest evil forces attack the sheep of the world. They are however supposed by a local farmer to have been kidnapped by aliens. In all actuality as they adventure across England (via the Underground, the Eye, boats on the Thames, a commuter jet, etc) they are pursued not only by their elderly, but sometimes spry owner and her gransdon, but also by the bank robbers whose cell phone got the whole story going. It's quirkly, but not wonderful. It's probably a fine investment for the proper age group given the general half-life of a kid's book. Book 2 in the series is out now too -- the warrior sheep do the Wild West. I do not believe I'll be reading that one.

News flash: Frogging causes stash

I've decided. It is only logical that I join Evalina's Oldest UFO challenge. I'm hauling out my old "friend," the lighthouse needlepoint kit my sister gave me years ago.

As near as I can guess I think I started this in 2004. I believe I had to pause in working on it to do other projects with deadlines. When I came back to it I was annoyed that I hadn't thought to do specialty stitches (who cares that the instructions patiently teach the continental--- yeah, like that's happening). But I had this problem --

-- you see all I had done was the clouds and the tower. I couldn't bear the thought of ripping out the tower for certain, but I figured I could manage the clouds and those were really where I wanted to change the stitching. Well, it seems that it was well-nigh impossible to pull the clouds without the tower. The thought of pulling out that course wool was enough to put me off the plan.... for several years.

Now, spinning time forward, Evalina comes up with this brilliant UFO adventure, and blammo, the lighthouse is on the burner. So this last weekend I pulled ALL the stitching out. It took all bloomin' day. All day -- all SATURDAY. A fine weekend day shot straight to... errr... the trash can. Please believe me when I say that I could have made several small, decorate sheep sculptures from the wool clips I pulled, and pulled, and pulled. And pulled. And then pulled some more.
I had to take several breaks in frogging because my fingers kept developing dents and grooves in them from the needle and the scissors. On one break I tried to find out if the kit was still being made so I could just buy a new one and leave off with my forgging torture. On other breaks (somewhere passed the 4-hour frogging mark) I begun wandering about the store scouting. My scouting missions turned up the following ornaments (on congress cloth-- that's how much my brain was fogged by frogging -- I thought doing a pair of congress cloth ornaments sounded like a joy) which I taped and started the basic threading--

Somewhere aroud hour 6 I decided I DESERVED (!!!!!) the following:

Obviously I not only found it, but also taped, stretchered, and threaded it. I almost pulled down matting and frames to decide whether I was framing it or mounting it in a box. {So much for my plan to "earn" that mask canvas by finishing the lighthouse.}

Now, 4 days on, the grooves in my fingers have faded and I'm mostly over the aversion I have to wooly things. I still think I deserve the ornaments and the rose though!

I'm too lame to have brought the pic of the now frogged canvas and the replacment Silk and Ivory. Soon.....

Finally, on a "literary" front, the following is courtesy of Stitch Bitch who got me thinking....

The book that’s been on your shelves the longest.
My little red Bible which I got in the 3rd grade elevation ceremony at my church -- must be one of the mysteries of Methodism that when you start 3rd grade you're old enough for a real Bible [all the "real" words and only a few pictures (mostly maps) at the back].
After that it'd be the ratty ole copy of The Last Defender of Camelot by Roger Zelazny which I got probably as a junior or senior in high school.


A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time).
Well there's the aforementioned little red Bible which I clearly remember standing on the marble steps in front of the altar clutching. I think I was wearing one of the dreaded choir robes at the time-- they were always too short because I was always too tall.
If I shouldn't be repeating then the Science Fiction Book Club edition of The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

It always reminds me of the old staff room at the library where I used to work and the afternoon my to-be friend snorted at me for rambling on with someone else about Star Trek (I was *not* rambling-- it wasn't like I was such a tremendous fan as that I would ramble) and told me he'd fix my problem. The next day in the same staff room he plopped the SFBC version of The Colour of Magic down in front of me and said, "there, read something worth talking about."

A book you acquired in some interesting way.

Ernest K Gann's Fate Is the Hunter which I picked up at a university donated books sale. It came with a letter inside from Gann thanking one of the big Hollywood studios for their interest in his work and their intentions to make another movie from one of his books, possibly Fate. I don't believe it ever got made, but the letter makes me smile.

The book that’s been with you to the most places.
This is kind of hard. I don't tend to repeatedly haul physical books on adventures. Lots of books I own went from home to college and then about college locations, but that's not very interesting. But once I joined Audible, it became a tradition that I'd avoid bad hotel TV by listening to Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun and/or Zombies of the Gene Pool at every con I went/will go to.


The most recent addition to your shelves.

Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next.
Tough again since I have several in process and I'm such a mood reader that it's hard to predict what happens next.
Most recent finish:

Agatha Christie's The Big Four a triumph of the "little grey cells."
Currently Reading:

Going with the "very last thing I was reading" which still yields two answers -- on the way in to work I was listening to the continually fascinating Eiffel's Tower by Jill Jonnes (the fascinating story of the development of the Eiffel Tower and the Paris world's fair that featured it).
The last physical book I had my nose in was The Quest of the Warrior Sheep by the husband and wife team of the Russells.

(One look should tell you it's a gift I needed to be up on in advance... at least I hope that's apparent.) I'm almost done -- thank Heavens!

My next read/finish will hopefully be something else I have in process -- The Nitrogen Murder so I can return it to my booky friend Anita who hasn't goten a chance to read it yet because she's been kindly lending it to weasels like me.